The long train to Aktau

Our last leg of Central Asia through to the Caspian Sea, and our longest train ever? We got straight on the train at Nukus at 19.30 armed with bread and noodles and were due to arrive in Mangystau, near Aktau on the Caspian Sea, at 17.15 the following day. We had a compartment to ourselves (not many people on this train apparently). Met a Cumbrian backpacker also going to Mangystau, a confusing collection of people who we couldn't work out if they were train guards or not, and several people who came into our compartment multiple times to move a sack of rice into the roof and out again. We also met an absolutely beautiful cat who seemed to enjoy the ride and a man playing an instrument, which may or may not have been a dutār.

A gentle evening rolling through the desert and we sat and read for a while, and since we knew we'd have all day to nap weren't in a hurry to go to bed. This was probably a mistake because we then got woken up at 3am by someone trying to get into our compartment; at 4am by the first border guards, which first looked like a massive panic as Elli thought we'd have to get off the train with all our baggage until we realised that they were coming on to do customs checks, but still meant waiting up for an hour while they stamped passports and checked our bags, and the far-too-chipper Uzbek guard asking "why you tired? you have had 8 hours to sleep!" (ha ha ha). Back to sleep and then up again at 7.30am for the Kazakh border guards doing exactly the same thing, and finally left alone for a bit at 9am, by which time the Samovar had heated up for morning coffee.

But we did get a long and peaceful day and also got to the point in the afternoon where we were bored, which was nice. We sat in the desert going nowhere for 2 hours, and then got delayed by about an hour and a half. The landscape got more dramatic as we got close to the Caspian Sea, with lots of interesting rock formations, valleys which look like they used to be part of the Caspian Sea, and some surprise camels who came to say hello.

Finally got to Aktau just before sunset and got to see the last of the light setting over the Caspian Sea. We took a walk along the impressively beautiful boardwalk along the seafront cliffs, and then lugged our bags sweatily up the hill to have a last meal in Central Asia with Andy the Cumbrian backpacker (Georgian, obviously, which sums up our feelings about Central Asian food at this point), and during which Elli's sandals finally collapsed, an apt signal of a milestone of the trip and hilariously bad timing.

Finally a taxi to the airport to wait for our 3am flight across the sea to Baku, because for some ungodly reason most of the flights from Aktau go in the middle of the night. At least this probably is less sweat and tears than it would have been to get a Russian visa and go round the top, so swings and roundabouts. Czytaj więcej